


How to Save the World from its Heroes

by stardustgirl



Series: Bender AU [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: (Because I said so), (and impersonations of), (do I really have to say who?), Agni Kai (Avatar), Airbender Padmé Amidala, Airbending & Airbenders, Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Avatar Anakin Skywalker, Avatar Cycle, Betrayal, Earthbender Ezra Bridger, Earthbender Kanan Jarrus, Earthbending & Earthbenders, F/F, F/M, Firebender Anakin Skywalker, Firebender Leia Organa, Firebending & Firebenders, Gay Panic, Gen, Heavy Angst, Heroes to Villains, Imperial Luke Skywalker, Lesbian Sabine Wren, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, M/M, Parental Kanan Jarrus, Spirits, Tagging as I go, Waterbending & Waterbenders, and also like atla (and ozai) there are bad dads, in this fic - Freeform, just like atla (and hakoda) there are some good dads in this, there's a lot of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24948487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: Being the Avatar’s—and Fire Lord’s—non-bending heir isn’t what Luke signed up for.  He also didn’t sign up for an Agni Kai he can’t possibly win, or for getting dragged into a search for someone who can kill his own dad.  Then again,someonehas to bring the world back into balance, and if his dad won’t, then Luke might as well give it his best shot.  After all, how much worse can things get?
Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa/Sabine Wren, Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader, Padmé Amidala & Luke Skywalker, Sheev Palpatine & Luke Skywalker
Series: Bender AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927567
Comments: 7
Kudos: 69





	1. The Challenger

The prison is dark.

It’s also damp, but not the kind that Luke likes; the prison is damp in a way that makes his skin crawl and exudes an aura of _rot_ that lives within the walls. Despite the dampness, however, being this close to the volcano that lends Caldera City its name is almost a guarantee that the very air of the corridors are as scorching as Agni himself.

He hasn’t been down here, not recently at least. Not that he can remember at _all,_ actually. But no matter. It should be easy enough to find the girl.

Father had said her name was Leia, and that she was a member of the group that kept starting uprisings to the southwest. He’d said she was a bender, too—an earthbender, if he has to guess; there aren’t any water or airbenders left, and firebenders would never be so disloyal that they would deliberately attack their own countries’ ships.

He rounds a corner and hesitates, sighting the guard at the end of this stretch of hall. This must be it, then.

When the guard sees him, he bows. “Prince Luke.”

“Is the girl down here?”

The guard nods. “Second cell to the right around the corner, sir.”

Luke follows the directions, halting in front of the bars. He’s never been more aware of his lack of bending ability, and more aware of the _jian_ strapped to his hip, than right at this moment.

The girl in the cell is young, maybe only a little older than him, and she snarls as he draws closer. “ _Another_ one of you?”

“Wait, someone came earlier?” Luke asks, confusion clouding his expression. The girl sighs and rolls her eyes, and he can see the faint outline of smoke drifting up from her fingertips. So. There _is_ such a thing as a disloyal firebender, then.

“Don’t they put you on a schedule or something? Yes, the Fire Lord _did_ come. And no, I still don’t feel like discussing anything until I know whether the prince has accepted my challenge!”

It dawns on him with the subtlety of the caldera spewing. _She doesn’t know who I am._

“What challenge?” he asks cautiously, remaining in the shadows. Now that he’s confident in his anonymity, he’d very much like to keep it, please and thank you.

“An Agni Kai,” she says, gaze determined. Luke’s heart skips a beat.

“The prince isn’t a bender,” he replies carefully.

And Leia _smirks._ “Exactly.”

Unnerved, he nods and backs away. “I’ll...tell him.”

She nods decisively, still smirking, and Luke feels his stomach sink.

* * *

When Father finds him, hours later, Luke is sitting on the floor in front of his bed. He’s leaning against the scarlet foot of the bed, head tipped back as he stares blankly at the ceiling. The man approaches, stopping several feet away. “You saw the girl.”

His voice makes certain that Luke knows it’s no question, but he nods anyway. “Yeah. She….She challenged me. To an Agni Kai. But I don’t—she didn’t know it was me. She told me to tell the prince that she was challenging him..”

“Hmm.”

He says nothing else for several minutes, allowing Luke to stew in his thoughts and worry of what Father’s reaction will be. The girl had clearly already made Father aware of her challenge to Luke, of course, but Father hasn’t told him of the Agni Kai yet. That fact leaves him uneasy, feeling like the ground will crumble beneath him at any moment. _Why hasn’t Father told him?_

“I won’t let the knowledge of the duel leave this room,” Father says finally, gaze on him but somehow looking beyond in that way he has. Like Luke is merely a pawn. “If that’s what you want.”

 _It is,_ Luke wants to say. Instead, he says, “It isn’t.”

Father nods. Voice smooth, he replies, “Then I expect you to be practicing with your tutors daily from now until the duel. Understood?”

He nods, and Father leaves, the interaction leaving Luke feeling as empty as it always does.

* * *

“You need to give yourself a steady base.”

“I _am_ giving myself a steady base!”

“No, you’re not.” Kanan punctuates the sentence with another step and another thrust, sending a rock the size of Chopper hurtling toward him. Ezra yelps, pivoting at the last second and thrusting an arm up and, with it, a stone barely bigger than his fist up toward Kanan’s rock. The bigger rock, of course, crushes his pebble when it hits the hill behind Ezra.

“Stop pivoting. You can’t just dodge it; you’re not an airbender.”

“But what if it’s coming at me and my defense is like that last one?!”

“Then tough luck, kid. C’mon. Let’s go see if they’re back from reconnaissance yet.”

Ezra trails behind as Kanan leads the way back to camp. All too soon, he sees Sabine fiddling with something that looks suspiciously like a firework while Hera and Zeb are trying to get an actual fire started.

“It was a lot easier when we had Leia here,” Hera mutters as Kanan comes to a stop next to her. “Almost forgotten h—there we go.” A spark hits the dry grass, coaxing it quickly to a sizable flame, and Hera sits back on her heels in relief as Zeb stands to stretch.

“‘ow’d trainin’ go, kid? You get ‘it with any rocks again?”

“It was just the once,” Ezra says, frowning at the comment. “And no, I _didn’t._ ”

“He nearly did, but he ducked.”

Zeb chuckles as Ezra shoots a glare at Kanan. “Sorry if I didn’t wanna get nailed in the head with a boulder!”

“Just relax, kiddo. I wouldn’t have let it actually hit you.”

Grumbling, Ezra stalks off toward Hera. “You want help with anything?”

“Be my guest,” she says, passing him a tunic from a Fire Nation commoner. Not that that’s much out of the ordinary for them, though. They’ve amassed a lot over the years. It always helps to have backups of the clothes they use to blend in, especially when traveling with Chopper.

He finds the tear on the tunic’s sleeve easily enough and sits, scooting closer to Hera as she sits all the way down, too, and pulls the sewing kit—Sabine had brought it with her from home, back when she first joined their small family—closer to them.

Ezra threads his needle absently, paying only enough attention to it to make sure he’s not stabbing himself before sticking it through the torn sleeve of the shirt. He starts stitching it silently, allowing his thoughts to wander as Hera does the same with a similar shirt beside him.

“So. What’s on your mind?”

He jumps at the sudden address, shooting her a glance for just long enough to confirm her own gaze is still on the fabric. Sighing, Ezra says, “I’m worried.”

“About Leia?”

He nods. “Sabine’s been just...distant, since she left, and like I get that but I’m just worried that Leia won’t come back and like already without her we’re kind of a mess and if she doesn’t come back and Sabine stays distant too—“

“Ezra,” Hera sets her sewing down, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Leia will be okay. And so will Sabine. They’re both strong, and they both know how to manage with both their relationship and the war. Leia’s survived the Fire Nation before. She can do it again.”

He nods. “Yeah, I know they’ll both be okay, I just...worry.”

“I know. That’s normal, Ezra. It’s normal to worry about people you care about. And it’s even harder when you feel helpless, because _Leia’s_ the one out there and _we’re_ all stuck back here. But she’ll be fine. We only have a couple of weeks until the eclipse. She can survive until then.” He nods again, and Hera embraces him with one arm.

“Thanks.”

She makes a sound of acknowledgement, and Ezra closes his eyes, vague memories of his own mom holding him the same way as a child floating to the surface of his mind.


	2. Agni Kai

He visits the girl again two days before the duel. The air in the dungeons is just as stagnant as usual, the heat simmering up to fill the emptiness his fear claws inside him. That fear doesn’t leave when he reaches her cell; it only lessens.

“Why?” is all he says, at first. Leia rises from her seat in the far corner of the cell, walking toward him with the languid steps of a cat.

“Why _what?_ ”

“Why did you challenge me? To...to the Agni Kai.”

She hesitates, but Luke sees the moment it hits her, sees the slight intake of breath she tries to hide as she responds, “You’re the one I’m here for, then.”

He doesn’t like the way her expression softens at that. “You’re here because you were involved in the southwestern revo—“

“No, I’m not. I’m here for _you._ ”

Luke blinks at the interruption. He’s not used to his thoughts being cut off like that by anyone but Father, and even then it’s rare. Gathering himself up again, he presses, “ _Why?_ ”

“You know Padmé, of course?”

He takes a step closer to the cell, anger roiling in his gut now. “My mother is _dead._ ”

“And how did she die?”

“She died in childbirth,” Luke says, reciting the words he’s grown up hearing from the moment Father deemed him old enough. “I was a difficult baby. She was weak from the fever—”

“Is that what they told you?” she interrupts again, unimpressed. “One of the many lies they fed you?”

“It’s _not_ a _lie,_ ” he says, shocked by even the notion that it _would_ be. _Father wouldn’t have. Not about...not about_ this.

“Think about it. Why _wouldn’t_ they lie?”

“Give me _one_ good reason why they _would_ lie about her!” Luke realizes he’s shouting now, and makes a half-hearted attempt to calm himself. It doesn’t work.

“Because there’s a great many things you don’t know about Padmé, and there’s a great many people pulling the strings behind this masquerade. And those people _don’t_ want you to know about her. Including her death.”

“Why would it matter if I did or not?!”

“Because,” she says, smiling now, “it would make you look differently upon your precious country if you knew it was ruled by a _murderer,_ wouldn’t it?”

“My father is _not—_ “

“He _is,_ and you’d save yourself a whole lot of trouble if you would just admit it.”

He holds her gaze for a long moment before dropping it, whirling and making to leave. As he stalks away, however, Leia calls after him.

“If you’re not afraid of what you’ll find out, then why don’t you just go to your father and _ask?_ ”

Luke hesitates, gaze physically on the darkened hall ahead of him but, in reality, on a far-off memory of the last time he’d dared to ask about his mother.

He shakes off the thought and leaves Leia and her uncomfortable words behind.

* * *

Luke shifts, adjusting his left arm ring as the seconds pass. He just needs to stall. And then he can stop this, and Leia can go back in prison where she belongs. It’ll be okay. He’ll be fine.

He hears a murmur rise from the crowd and glances over his shoulder to see Leia. She’s led into the large chamber by a pair of guards, soldiers Luke _knows_ would lay down their lives for him _or_ his father, regardless of what claims the girl makes. _She’s a liar. She’ll say_ anything _to get herself released. She’s cut from the same cloth as the rest of the rebels._

He just needs to stall.

The soldiers stop her just before the strip, removing the chains binding her wrists and ankles. She stares at him as a servant drapes a shoulder garment over her. Luke walks closer to the strip, forcing his nerves to still as a servant places a garment over his own shoulders.

Luke exhales slowly, letting himself calm down. This is just a show. He just has to avoid Leia and her fire long enough for Father to get them to call off the duel. He just needs to stall.

Leia, however, doesn’t seem willing to give him that chance.

The firebender walks up onto the strip with a graceful confidence that makes him antsy, her gaze unimpressed as she takes him in. “Ready?” she calls.

_It isn’t honorable for her to challenge you. Father will find a way to stop it. You’ll survive._

He just needs to stall.

Swallowing hard, he nods. “Yeah. I– I am.”

Without further warning, she turns and kneels, facing away from him. Swallowing hard, Luke does the same. He breathes deeply, counting to ten breaths before the gong sounds and he rises, turning. Leia sheds her shoulder garment as he does the same, and then she strikes.

She moves forward in a sudden rush, no fire sparking to life until she hits the midpoint of the strip. All at once, a burst of scarlet flame and billowing smoke rushes forth from her hand, and Luke barely manages to twist out of the way before it hits him.

He’s never been more thankful for Father’s insistence he learn bending theory regardless of his ability to make use of it.

Leia throws another strike of flame at him and he shifts his weight onto the balls of his feet, feinting out of the way just in time. Another flame, another feint. His third takes him close enough to Leia to see the sweat beading on her brow, the same that he knows is soaking his own face and chest.

“Never too late to ask for mercy,” she says, gaze focused.

“It’s dishonorable.”

“Your choice, then,” she shrugs, bringing her leg up and into a kick marked by an arc of flame towards his head. He narrowly manages to duck away from it. She kicks again, and this time he’s forced to stumble backward, losing ground.

“If your father really cared about you as much as you seem to think he does, then why are you even fighting me?” she taunts, throwing her palm toward him and, with it, a blast of fire. Luke retreats once more, but it’s not enough. The blast is still coming, and he’s running out of room to back up, and it’s going to burn his face and his eyes and he’s gonna die—

Desperate, Luke throws his hands up, hoping for just the _slightest_ spark to save him—

 _Energy_ floods through him in a tidal wave, overtaking all of his—of _their—_ senses and turning everything bright and hazy and too fuzzy as he—as _they—_ stretch his—stretch _their—_ hand further and, with it, he— _they—_ pull forth the _water_ his— _their—_ past life could bend like breathing and suddenly it’s _over_ and Luke is left feeling empty, empty, empty—

There’s a sharp crackle, and a collective gasp as he falls back to the ground, eyes closed and hand still up defensively in front of his face.

After a moment, however, he’s still not dead, Leia still hasn’t blasted him into his father’s next lifetime, so Luke opens his eyes.

There’s no flame.

Instead, there’s a wall of _ice._


	3. Visions of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Restraint

The crowd is too stunned to do anything for a minute. Their silence is more deafening than their cheers, however, and it allows Luke to hear every thud of his beating heart. Even Leia stands in shocked stillness for a moment. She’s still divided from him by the sheet of ice, but he can see her stunned expression reflected in the fractals.

And then the chamber erupts into chaos.

Guards rush forward to take Leia, even as she turns and starts firebending with the grace of a dragon against them. She takes down all but a few before one manages to land a blast of fire on her shoulder, knocking her back against the ice. As the remainder of the guards approaches, she turns and _shoves_ her hands against the ice to melt it.

It won’t be fast enough.

She turns a panicked gaze to Luke, mouthing what he thinks is a plea, but he’s still too shocked to do anything but watch as two guards reach her and jerk her hands behind her back.

Luke can’t do anything but watch as she’s led off of the strip, too.

She shoots him a glance over her shoulder as they lead her out. Luke tries to force himself to not give into the oncoming exhaustion that he can see creeping at the edges of his vision, but the minute she’s gone for good he can’t keep it up anymore.

He collapses in front of his father’s court.

* * *

Luke awakes to silence.

He’s not in his room, he knows that immediately. It’s sweltering and humid wherever he is, and it smells like sulfur. Like….

Like the caldera.

There’s something pressing against his mouth, too, something that almost feels like _fabric._

His eyes adjust to the near darkness after a long moment, and he sees the double doors at the end of the room. He tries to bring a hand up to pull away the fabric shoved in his mouth, but his arm won’t move, almost like it’s—

He’s chained.

His feet are chained to the ground, arms similarly restrained but with chains leading to two posts that reach just high enough above him to be slightly uncomfortable. He notices with another jolt of fear that his hands are covered with metal, metal that he can’t get off, metal that’s—

That would be keeping him from bending if he even _could_ bend.

He’s not sure how long he struggles fruitlessly with the restraints before one of the doors starts to creak open. Good, maybe this is Father or a guard, come to rescue him—

It _is_ Father. But he merely stands at the far end of the room, watching Luke silently for a long moment.

Luke tries to call him, to get him to come closer, but the words are muffled by the gag. And, either way, Father does not come closer.

Luke feels tears spring to his eyes. _Why isn’t he helping me?! For all I know, someone could be planning my assassination right now, and he’s just_ standing there—

“Are you aware of what you just did?”

Father’s words, his voice still rough from the battle with his earthbending teacher years ago, snap like a whip. Luke blinks.

Father begins to take slow, measured steps closer, shadowed eyes piercing directly into Luke. He stops, still several feet away, and lets out a low chuckle. “You _revealed_ yourself to me in your little ploy to save your life, boy.”

_Revealed myself? What—_

“If you had not, if you had kept up your disguise for longer, then perhaps you would not be here. _Perhaps_ you would still be in your lessons, trying to produce a flame that will not spark, will _never_ spark.”

Luke already knows he’s not what a Fire Lord’s heir _should_ be, but regardless, it still stings to hear his father say it so plainly.

“Now. I won’t kill you—that would defeat the _purpose_ of this whole elaborate set-up, would it not? If _you_ exist, there are doubtless others like you who do, and I don’t intend to spend my time searching every family’s children who live in the shadows for one who can waterbend. It was hard enough to find you, after all. And you were right under my nose the whole time.”

Luke’s bewilderment has only grown since his father began speaking, and it isn’t going away anytime soon.

“The girl is a problem, of course; you made sure of that with your little _display._ But she’ll be sent to the Boiling Rock, and I have heard that occasionally prisoners manage to fall off the gondola on the way in.” Father falls silent for a moment, studying him, and then adds, “If you would not become a bigger problem by my doing so, then perhaps you would be going along with her.”

Luke’s stomach churns. _A_ bigger _problem…?_

“I’m sure you have many questions.”

He does.

He really, really does.

“But I’m also sure that your...past mentors will give you the guidance you need to answer them. After all, what else is there for you to do now?” Luke can _hear_ the cold smile in his voice, but as Father turns to leave, he still struggles to break free of the chains.

“There is no one here to aid you, boy. No one to hear your truths when a much more... _pleasant_ lie is staring them in the face.”

The door shuts with a heavy thud that sounds more akin to the sealing of a tomb.

* * *

In between visits from Father and the occasional meals brought by silent, faceless guards, Luke dreams.

He sees his father in his youth, leading a battalion of Fire Nation soldiers against a group of pirates, fighting on the front lines alongside those soldiers as if they are his own flesh and blood and rank. He sees his father and a man dressed in the traditional garb of an earthbender, laughing and talking as they ride a pair of disgruntled ostrich horses atop a mesa, halting at the edge to look out over an expansive desert. He sees his father embrace a woman with arrows visible on her hands, whispering soft words as she reads over a treaty, brushing her hair back as it cascades into her face.

“ _I love you more than all of this, you know,_ ” Dream-Anakin whispers, standing side-by-side with the woman as they look out a window and into what Luke recognizes as the palace gardens. “ _More than being the Fire Lord and the Avatar both._ ”

He sees a man in earthbender robes, his status as the Avatar plain despite the dark sword in his hand. A woman in the parkas of the Water Tribes, bending water to freeze it into a glistening blade that reflects the blue of the oceans before her. A golden-eyed man in red and black armor forcing both flames and earth to life as he fights back an oncoming battalion.

But over and over again, the most consistent character in his dreams is his father, face marred by the scar given by a failed assassin, and eyes full of longing for the airbender.

And every time he wakes, Luke knows that the woman—that _Padmé—_ is long gone.


	4. The Lady Amidala

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Blood, Restraint, Murder, Referenced Child Death, Referenced Genocide, Internalized Ableism (don't worry he'll get called out on it later)

_“Anakin, he destroyed_ everything! _”_

_“Liar!”_

_The Avatar takes a step closer, gaze furious as he stares down the airbender. “He did_ not. _He had_ no reason _to kill the children—“_

 _“Yes, he_ did! _Or did you forget his lies about Shmi?!”_

 _Anakin’s eyes begin to glow. His voice grows thunderous as he says, “Do_ not _bring my mother into this!”_

_“Anakin, stop!”_

Luke wakes to a clang.

He blinks blearily, trying to clear the rest of the sleep from his eyes. It works to the point where he can make out the outline of the open door, of the figure standing next to it, of the chains on his wrists—the _open_ door?

The figure beside it is a girl, face covered in elaborate red and white markings that seem suspiciously familiar to him. She watches him impassively for a moment before approaching.

And then he sees her sword.

It swings up before he realizes what’s happening, and one of the chains falls slack before the end clatters back against the pole. Another swing, and his right arm is cut loose, too. The girl approaches, sheathing the yanmaodao before removing something from her pocket. She reaches for the metal encasing his hand. Luke shrinks back, clutching it to his chest and shaking his head, but the girl only stares at him impassively for a moment before grabbing it. This time, he lets her, too scared to guess at the potential alternatives. He catches a glimpse of the object she pulled from her pocket; it looks like a hair pin. She inserts it into an opening on the metal so small he hadn’t even seen it and twists, and moments later the metal pops free. She catches it before it can clatter to the floor and sets it down carefully before reaching for his other hand. Luke lets her this time, and within moments he’s massaging his wrist before reaching up to take the gag off.

The girl grabs his hand and shakes her head, and Luke slowly lowers his hand before nodding. She wants him to keep the gag on for whatever reason. It’s not ideal, but she’s already nearly half freed him, so he’ll do whatever to keep that freedom.

She kneels with the pin, working on his legs, and soon enough the chains tethering him to the ground are unlocked. She rises, gesturing, and he follows her out the door.

Five guards are lying prone on the floor. And, Luke supposes, it’s a safe bet to think they’re dead.

The girl steps carefully around the bodies before heading down the corridor.

Swallowing dryly, Luke has no choice but to follow her.

The cloying, choking scent of sulphur begins to lessen the further they go, and if he focuses he can _almost_ feel fresh air on his face when he hears the bells.

The girl freezes, and he can hear a hissed curse under her breath before she starts to run. He follows, nearly bumping into her when she abruptly stops at the end of the corridor. She unsheathes the yanmaodao, and then a trio of soldiers comes around the corner.

The girl takes out the first two guards in seconds, and whirls on the third with a ferocity that terrifies Luke. The remaining guard _does_ put up a fight, enough of one to keep the girl from winning too easily, but in a matter of seconds he’s on the ground with blood pouring from his throat.

The girl gestures for Luke to follow, and he does. He doesn’t want to find out what she’ll do otherwise.

They only run into a few other guards before reaching a heavy doorway. The girl’s yanmaodao is put up for a moment as she pulls out the same pin as before, fiddling with the lock before kicking it open and brandishing the sword.

There’s no one there.

She gestures toward Luke again, and he follows her out into the sparse moonlight. Agni’s warmth is gone, only leaving Tui’s faint glow far above. She’s waning, and Luke realizes with a jolt that he must have been imprisoned for a couple of weeks now.

The alarm bells are still tolling, however, so the girl gestures again, eyes flashing behind the markings. He follows her as they slip silently through the courtyard, clinging to the shadows.

_No wonder Agni isn’t here. He doesn’t want to witness his son’s dishonor._

All too soon, they’re slipping away through the gates.

When they reach the darkened streets of Caldera City, the bells only a distant knell by now, the girl slows to a stop and rips Luke’s gag off.

“Thanks,” he says breathlessly. She rolls her eyes, gesturing for him to remain silent before turning and beginning to weave back through the streets. Luke hesitates before hurrying after her, trying to keep as silent as she is even with the sword strapped to her waist.

As they wind through the alleys, he realizes with a start where he recognizes her from. She’s a spirit. The Lady Amidala, the legends say, a protector of the voiceless.

Luke’s not sure how he feels about being labeled as _weak,_ even if it’s true, and even if it’s by a spirit.

The spirit is silent even as they leave the city, and he takes the hint, not questioning her even as they sneak by guard post after guard post.

And in the distance, the bells still toll.

* * *

They’ve been traveling through the night and into the morning—a morning that leaves Luke shaky with exhaustion, though the fear of being caught by his father’s firebenders and dragged back to that room fuels his steps—when they top a rise and the spirit stops.

“They’re back!”

A shout greets them as he sights a small cluster of stone structures below them. The Lady Amidala starts down the hill, Luke following, though he trips as it hits him. _Earthbenders._

The spirit stops again, turning to see him frozen. She gestures, but Luke doesn’t react.

_My father’s earthbending teacher tried to kill him._

Sighing loudly, she grabs his arm and pulls him forward. She’s pretty straightforward for a spirit, he thinks distantly. As they get closer to the structures—they’re tents, Luke realizes—a boy about his age bursts out of one and stumbles to a stop upon spotting him. “ _That’s_ the heir? He’s kind of scrawny.”

“Ezra, be nice,” a voice chides, a man emerging from the same tent. His eyes are what draw Luke’s attention first; they’re clouded in a way that proclaims his blindness loud and clear. _In the Fire Nation, that’s the sort of thing you’d wear a blindfold for,_ Luke thinks. _Does the Earth Kingdom not care about showing weaknesses like that?_

Father’s different, because displaying _his_ arm’s absence is another threat, another reminder to his enemies that as the Avatar, he could make it into _anything._

The spirit finally stops, scrubbing an arm over her face as a couple more people emerge from other tents. The markings begin to rub off. Paint, he realizes. She’s _not_ a spirit, then.

_Though why was she impersonating one?_

Now that they’re in the light of day and the makeup is mostly off, he can see her eyes are golden, but he hasn’t seen her produce a single spark. And he doesn’t think that a group with such powerful earthbenders would let a nonbender in. Maybe she’s been hiding her ability?

“Sorry, I’m eighty-five percent of his impulse control,” she says, turning to Luke. That’s not quite what he’d expect a spirit—or even someone impersonating one—to say upon a first meeting.

“No, you’re not! I don’t need—“

The blind man cuts the boy, Ezra, off with, “Yeah, she’s only fifteen percent of it. _I’m_ the rest.”

The teen huffs, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, sure, whatever. So, Luke then?”

“Yes,” he says slowly.

“Okay. Where’s Leia?”

The girl tenses, eyes flashing as she spits, “She was already gone when I arrived.”

Ezra’s gaze falls to the ground as he mutters an oath, and Luke knows that he’s to blame. If he had just ignored the girl’s request to duel—

“I’m Hera.”

He blinks, breaking his gaze away from Ezra to see the people who’d emerged from the tents only minutes earlier. A young woman, dressed in shades blue enough to be Water Tribe, is extending a dark hand to him. He shakes it, suddenly wary of her unreadable expression.

“Kanan,” the man with Ezra supplies, raising a hand. “This is Ezra, and that’s Sabine,” he adds, pointing to the girl beside Luke. It unnerves him how accurate the man’s aim is despite his lack of sight. “Jai’s—“

“—right here,” a voice interrupts, a boy pushing through the others. He’s a bit older than Luke, and looks it, gaze sharp and calculating. “And he can introduce himself.” He raises an eyebrow, appraising Luke. “Ezra was right; you _are_ kind of disappointing. I was expecting the Avatar’s kid to come in here, y’know, blazing.”

“I can’t bend,” Luke says.

“No, he _can_ bend,” Sabine corrects hastily. “Everyone at the Agni Kai saw it. He can waterbend; he made a wall of ice—“

“But that wasn’t me!”

“Yes, it was, because literally _everyone_ saw you—”

“But I _can’t_ waterbend! My mother— _Padmé_ was an airbender, and Father’s a firebender, I can’t– there’s no way—”

“The spirits tend to have their own opinions on stuff sometimes, kid. Maybe they wanted you to be a waterbender,” Kanan says. “And it’s not our place to question that.”

Luke’s head is spinning, both from exhaustion and the overload of new information. So the ice _was_ him, and...and he can _waterbend?_

_But then why haven’t I ever managed to do it before…?_

_“If_ you _exist, there are doubtless others like you who do, and I don’t intend to spend my time searching every family’s children who live in the shadows for one who can waterbend. It was hard enough to find you, after all. And you were right under my nose the whole time.”_

His father’s words send a chill down his spine, and Luke swallows hard. _Others who were chosen by_ spirits?

Agni, the world is getting weirder by the minute.

“Okay, so maybe I _can_ waterbend, but it’s not like I ever learned how! And...why does Father want more waterbenders?”

“Wait, he wants _more?_ ” Hera asks, voice tightening. Luke nods fervently.

“Yeah, he– he said something about searching for others. And I think he thought I knew where they are, because he said that if he killed me it’d mess everything up.”

Jai curses under his breath. “He already _did_ kill all of the others. You’re the last one left, then.”

 _Father wanted this. He said that that was_ good.

_So why do I feel like it’s a bad thing?_


End file.
